Ba'al

Another monthly playlist coming in hot from the Ba’al stringsmen, with some words explaining our picks from what we’ve been listening to this month. Dive in.

Richard – Bass

Tove Lo, SG Lewis – Heat

Brat summer may be drawing to a close, but that doesn’t mean the end of pounding dance pop bangers. This collaborative EP is front to back heaters and impossible not to have a good time to.

Selbst – La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos

The passionate intensity of Gaerea with some of the weird melodies of Voices, coming together to make one of those extreme metal albums that expertly treads the line between avant-garde and accessible. Naughty.

Chappell Roan – Pink Pony Club

It’s taken me long enough, but I’ve finally fallen under the spell of the world’s newest queer icon – and even as a cis, straight white guy in a black metal band, I can confirm that this is pop euphoria.

Julie Christmas – End of the World

Another year’s excellent ArcTanGent is still ringing in my ears, and Julie Christmas was predictably excellent. If you ever wish there was a Mariner part II, then this track is as close as you’ll get, featuring good ol’ Johannes from Cult of Luna (and Christmas’ own band) on vocals alongside the manic pixie herself, and it’s got a real earworm of a post metal chorus…

Iress – Falling

…and speaking of earworm choruses from ATG, here’s another. Iress were new to me, and the low-key, dreamy yet despondent shoegazey tunes of their new album are perfect for a sleepy afternoon with your feelings.

Chris – Guitar

Opeth – §1

Look, I grew up an Opeth fanboy. Still Life, Blackwater Park, the works. My face is literally front and centre on the Live at the Royal Albert Hall DVD. But their last few releases, since Mikael decided he just wanted to ape 70s prog, have left me completely cold. So when I heard they were bringing back the harsh vocals I was cautiously optimistic. The rest of the album might not live up to the promise of this song, but it has an absolutely perfect “UGH” which takes me back to my youth. That’ll do, pig.

Stateless – Miles To Go

I first heard this electronica/trip-hop-esque song on the soundtrack of the (excellent) open-world kung-fu Triad game Sleeping Dogs, and I loved that game, so it quickly wormed into my memory banks. Really sets the scene for car chases through Hong Kong after you’ve inflicted some horrendously OTT environmental violence on a bunch of other gangsters, y’know?

Benjamin Wallfisch – That’s Our Sun

I don’t necessarily love Alien movies for the soundtrack – I couldn’t hum you any memorable tunes from the first movie, and that’s probably my second-favourite film of all time. But I really, REALLY enjoyed Alien: Romulus, and I particularly enjoyed the ominous yet hopeful vibes of this piece which plays fairly early on (before things have gotten, as you might expect, absolutely fucking horrible).

Ghost – Bible

I have long been an enjoyer of Ghost, seemingly one of the more Marmite bands in the metal scene due to their propensity for big sing-along choruses and poppy hooks. This slow-build ballad is off one of their covers EPs, and was originally by a Swedish rock band from the 80s called Imperiet. I’ve never listenee to the original, and tbh, I don’t feel like I need to when this version is so huge.

Aaron Grubb – Lake Hylia (from Twilight Princess)

I’ve spent a lot of time this month working from home on the sofa trying to keep my new dog calm and relaxed, which means lots and lots of soothing piano videogame covers to act as background noise and chill him out. This one, from one of the darker and more minor key games in the Legend of Zelda series, has been a particular favourite as the winter and colder/rainier days start to draw in.

Nick – Guitar

Peace of Mind – Impaler

Got a record of this on the impulse of wanting more hardcore vinyl whilst I was last in Glasgow, from a record shop directly across the road from Ivory Blacks, where we played but a few months ago. How we missed it that time is beyond me, it’s pretty massive. Anyway, this is a cool hardcore album, satisfied my impulse nicely.

Marvin Gaye – What’s Happening Brother

No it wasn’t the countless polls listing this as the greatest album of all time, nor was it the exceedingly high ratings across every rating site you can think of. No, what finally brought me round to listening to this album was a stupid Spotify playlist called “marvin gaye’s clueless ass” and it’s just all his songs whose titles make him sound mega confused. Good meme, great album.

Ghost – Majesty

Ah I see two of us have picked Ghost songs this week, what an embarrassing lack of planning on our part. No matter. I’ve been a fan of Ghost since around the time this album came out. It’s probably still my favourite but every other album is a tied close second. I really think Ghost are the modern day KISS, only with better musicianship and songwriting, and a more interesting aesthetic, and less nobheads, etc.

Bansith – The Cure

Particularly fond of the opening guitar riff on this track, I’m usually fond of rhythmic delayed guitars like this and I will stand my ground on The Edge being an underrated guitarist. I digress, this is a great tune from a wicked young band from our town.

Nails – Every Bridge Burning

Ah yes, the sound of death but all on fire and spiky and somehow worse (better).